ALL groups, clubs, clans, even gangs, have a class structure, a hierarchy of sorts. Why?

Because that’s the way democratic societies work. If you start or are born at the bottom, you then endeavour to work your way up the ladder by acquiring status, position or money.

It’s simple really, but the class structure has seemingly become a problem.

Pride is being taken away. We may sneer at the class system and it’s not perfect, but, to a degree, it works and is better than us all being a mediocre one-class society.

The answer is not putting and pushing education as the only way up; the real way is ambition, determination and hard work.

Selling 50 per cent of our young people the notion that to get a degree is their pathway to wealth and happiness has backfired and filled the job-seeking market with young people who feel they are somewhat overqualified for any sort of semi-skilled job.

But if you leave school and start work, you’re four years ahead of your student contemporaries then, if need be, study along the way. Can students ever catch up on that experience?

The alternative is to come out of university at the same time as thousands of other qualified, but inexperienced, young people, all looking for the Holy Grail, trying to get work in a saturated market.

The working class have been sidelined, by allowing a flood of immigrant workers in, undercutting the wage structure. Sad to say, but once the work ethic is lost, it’s the very devil to re-establish.

This is amply demonstrated by our extremely soft and over-generous welfare system, which has created a ‘culture of entitlement’, where people not only expect, but succeed, in drawing benefits worth more than if they were working.

What’s the answer? Here’s my manifesto.

Only the intellectually minded go on to higher education and the spurious degrees to be obtained at night school.

Halt immigration.

Ensure all children can read, write, do basic maths and speak good English on leaving junior school.

Bring back competitive sports in order to make winning an achievement.

Teach youngsters morals, respect and to value themselves and others.

Hold a referendum on Europe, as promised.

Invest in our manufacturing base.

Tighten up the benefit system.

The government has stated that the white, working class population is, at the moment, the underdog, so it’s up to us to make a stand and demand that they get back their proper place and, with it, their dignity.